Ongoing Ambassadors for Christ
Conference Call
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Members Present: Pastor Daniel Smith – Executive Director, Daniel Barz – Assistant to the Executive Director, Pastor David Loeschen – Chairman, Katie Jeppesen – Secretary, Debbie McBee, Nathan Ruppert, Matthew Tassey, Noah Elmshauser, Paul Mueller, Melissa Shore, Mallory Hicks
Guest: Tim Likens
Chairman Pastor Daniel Smith called the meeting to order at 8:04 p.m. CDT. Pastor David Loeschen shared a devotion on the subject of Christ’s resurrection. No matter what time of the year it is, we should greet our fellow Christians with the words “He is risen!” This message is what binds all Christians together. The devotion concluded with a prayer.
REPORTS
The Minutes from the January meeting were sent to and reviewed by the board
members before this meeting. Debbie moved that the board accept the minutes
as submitted. Nathan seconded and the motion carried.
The Treasurer’s was sent to the members of the board meeting by email and reviewed before the meeting times.
2007 6-month report
INFLOWS
Uncategorized 1,395.62
CHURCH 4,097.00
Designated Gifts 245.60
FOUNDATIONS 1,388.72
INDIVI 3,217.89
INTEREST 83.87
MISC 1,809.02
Reimbursement 855.00
TOTAL MISC 2,664.02
New Years 3,345.49
ORGANIZATIONS 760.00
SALES
CD Sales 268.00
Piano Score Bks 140.00
SCRIPTS 10.00
SONG BOOK 335.00
TOTAL SALES 753.00
SpringBreak Travel Teams 4,671.29
SUMMER TRAINING
Regist 1,358.00
T shirts 22.50
TOTAL SUMMER TRAINING 1,380.50
Thrivent 10,241.00
Thrivent Match 3,788.00
Ch'pter 4,948.00
TOTAL Thrivent Match 8,736.00
WEEKENDS 7,785.71
FROM Note 5,431.14
TOTAL INFLOWS 56,196.85OUTFLOWS
ACCRUALS 1,972.00
MATERIALS
CRIPOST 635.55
CRIPRINT 906.24
MISC 9.21
PRINT 479.92
TOTAL MATERIALS 2,030.92
MISCELLANEOUS
Designate Gift 245.60
DEVELOP 1,233.54
Reinburse 2,307.42
Spring Break 4,146.71
SUMTRN 1,500.00
TOTAL MISCELLANEOUS 9,433.27
New Year's Eve Event 1,308.86
Office
Internet 24.75
NEWEQUIP 1,364.18
SUPPLIES 3,873.79
TELEPH
Barz 347.40
Office 117.12
TOTAL TELEPH 464.52
TELEPH, Smith 53.34
UPS 83.40
US POST 29.86
TOTAL Office 5,893.84
Sal&Bene
ASST. DIR
Cash 9,294.00
Housing 9,294.00
Met life 310.00
TOTAL ASST. DIR 18,898.00
BENEFITS
WKBenef Barz Disability 469.08
WKBenef Barz Health 10,850.03
WKBenef Barz Retirement 1,187.10
WKBenef Ruhlig Health 3,072.00
TOTAL BENEFITS 15,578.21
EX DIR
Cash Smith 2,400.00
TOTAL EX DIR 2,400.00
TOTAL Sal&Bene 36,876.21
Travel
97 Ford van IL 3,640.43
BOARD 1,068.81
Staff Barz 832.79
TOTAL Travel 5,542.03
TO OAFC2006 5,431.14
TOTAL OUTFLOWS 68,488.27OVERALL TOTAL -12,291.42
Erwin A. Ruhlig, Pastor OAFC Business Manager.
Debbie McBee moved that the Treasurer’s Report be approved as submitted. Katie Jeppesen seconded the motion and the motion carried.
Executive Director, Pastor Dan Smith shared that much of his OAFC time has been useful in putting together the travel teams and serving as a leader for one of them. The weekends down in Arizona while the travel team was there were successful, and there are youth in that area who are able to be commissioned after attending at least two of the weekends. There is a pastor interested in serving as a director and a couple youth may be attending Summer Training in July.
In his
verbal report, Dan Barz, Assistant to the Executive Director, stated that
OAFC is very thankful to the congregations in Arizona. Two churches donated
vans for the travel teams to use and one church donated a gas card.
After the resignation of OAFC leaders Gary and Dodie Wessel, Pastor Dan
Smith will be taking temporary leadership of the Central Illinois OAFC
group.
Dan Barz has been preparing for Summer Training. Speakers Rev. Terry Dittmer
and Rev. Herbert Mueller have been confirmed. Soon he will be working on
Summer Travel teams. He will work primarily on a travel team from Houston to
Kansas City.
Nathan moved that the Assistant to the Executive Director’s report be
approved as submitted. Mallory seconded the motion. Motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
New
Years
St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Concordia, MO has confirmed their willingness
to host New Years 2007. Paul Mueller moved that New Years 2007 be held at
St. Paul’s Lutheran School, Concordia, MO. Melissa seconded the motion.
Motion carried.
People are already designated to prepare and serve food for New Years.
Nursing homes seem to be readily available for visits. Coordinators are
already strategizing about canvassing areas. Hopefully students that attend
St. Paul’s will return early from their holiday vacations to participate in
New Years events. Pastor Darkow suggested that Brain Young speak on the
topic of creation.
New Years will be longer this year because of how it falls in the days of
the week.
Summer Training
At least a dozen churches have committed to hosting Summer Training teams in
Texas. The schedule will be very different this year to accommodate for
OAFC’s participation in the LC-MS National Convention. Speakers will present
in the afternoon and pictures will be taken on Friday.
Travel Teams
Kyle McBee cannot serve as a leader this year and Camp Restore is not
available after training for the Louisiana travel team. It is possible that
Dan could lead this team and they could complete their ministry before
Summer Training started. Dan could bring this team to training early to help
with preparations. Pastor Dan Smith shared that the Galesburg van could be
used for an early travel team since it has recently had its engine rebuilt.
However, Pastor Smith would then have to rent a van to bring youth in his
area to Summer Training.
Background Checks
This is just a reminder that we need to make sure our background checks are
submitted to OAFC and encourage other adults to complete background checks
and have them on record with the OAFC office in Athens, IL.
Board of Director Nominations
Tom Iverson from South Dakota was added to the list for male youth
candidates. Katie moved that the nominations would cease and this would be
the ballot as it is now. Debbie McBee seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Youth Gathering
Pastor Dan Smith and Dan Barz will both be at the National Youth Gathering.
Pastor Smith is going with his church. A sign-up sheet will be available at
Summer Training for youth to note times when they would like to volunteer to
help with the OAFC booth. Dan Barz is working to make the booth more
attractive.
LC-MS National Convention
Arrangements are being made for people to be at the booth at the LC-MS
National Convention through the days OAFC is there. Video clips were not
created and the deadline is past; however, we may be able to submit them if
they are received before May.
Leadership Video
The idea of creating a video to help train leaders was discussed at the
January Board of Directors meeting. Pictures for this video have been taken
and submitted, but nothing has been put together yet.
Youth Manual
Pastor David Loeschen would like to remove a lot of the material that in the
current youth manual and place it in an appendix so that the new youth are
not overwhelmed by the amount of reading. He would also like to create a
brief beginner’s guide to OAFC that is smaller and could be given to youth
at their first weekend.
OAFC may need to create a list of what is allowed at OAFC events rather than
a list of what is not allowed. This list will state expectations in a
positive way.
Pastor Loeschen will not be not be able to attend Summer Training this year,
so he will send documents to Melissa so she can prepare a report for the
meeting there.
Summer Training 2008
Dan Barz will meet with the coordinators in Champaign, IL to talk about
dates and preparations for Summer Training 2008.
New
Business
Nathan Ruppert met Jim Likens in church this morning and asked him to attend
this meeting. Jim shared that he has done videos for CPH as well as many
other synodical organizations. He just completed a video about Camp Restore
and hurricane Katrina for World Relief and Human Care. St. Paul’s Lutheran
School, Concordia, MO asked Jim to produce a recruiting video for them. This
video has helped them to raise their attendance and recruit international
students.
Jim Likens is a former ambassador who attended his first weekend in
Oklahoma. Pastor Tom Moyer contacted Jim about creating an OAFC video back
in 2001, but no further communication occurred between the two of them.
There are three video projects suggested by Jim for OAFC: one for recruiting
ambassadors, one for recruiting congregations, and one for donor viewing.
Pastor Dan Smith expressed the desire to meet with Jim Likens.
In the future Jim would like to show his video about the centurion, Julius
to ambassadors at a large OAFC event, such as Summer Training or New Years.
The next board meeting will be announced after Dan Barz completes the schedule for Summer Training.
Nathan moved that we adjourn the meeting. Paul Mueller seconded the motion. Motion carried. The meeting concluded at 9:22 p.m. CST. Pastor Dan Smith closed the meeting in prayer.
Submitted in Christ’s Service
Katie Jeppesen, Secretary
